I Should Just Step Away From The Knitting

So yesterday Bird woke up and said her tummy hurt.

I love the girl, but she can be a bit of a hypochondriac/drama queen at times.  Sometimes it is hard to tell when her tummy really hurts, and when she just doesn't want to take her math test.

I watched her go through her morning and decided her tummy ache was real.  I offered to call her in sick.

She refused.  She had decided that she wanted to get a perfect attendance award this year and she wasn't going to let a little thing like a tummy ache hold her back.

With her shoulders determinedly set, off to school she want.

She made it two and a half hours before the school nurse called me.

Bird had thrown up.

I don't know about you, but I always feel a slight air of condemnation when the school nurse calls to tell you to pick up your sick child.  Almost like the nurse doesn't understand why you sent your sick child to school in the first place.   I feel judged and convicted of bad parenting.  Maybe that's just me.

I arrived at the school to find a very sick looking little girl who was now running a fever (something she did NOT have that morning.  I checked, I swear).  As we left the school I asked her how many times she threw up.  This was her explanation of events:

"First I threw up five times on the floor.  Then I threw up twice in Mrs. X's trashcan.  Then Mrs. X told me to go to the bathroom, but I couldn't make it to the bathroom.  I threw up five more times in the trashcan by the door.  So twelve times."

What I got from that is she was counting how many times her stomach heaved, but she still managed to throw up in three different places in her classroom.  Poor Baby!  And is there anything worse than being in fourth grade and puking in front of your entire class?

She laid on the couch looking pathetic all afternoon, and she put herself to bed at seven last night.

This morning she is still running a temp.

So she is home with me today.  She wants to watch Dr. Who.  I'll probably let her.  Only my tummy is feeling like a hot ball in my abdomen, so she might have to share the couch with me.

In knitting news I made a ton of progress on Meaty's Weasley Sweater yesterday while I was tending to (and catching germs from) my sick little Bird.

It is a shame I'm going to have to rip it all out.

I was loving this pattern.  LOVING IT!  It was well written.  The chart was easy to memorize.  You can't tell from the pictures, but I'm using the loveliest shade of blue yarn.  It was a joy to knit.

Until I got to the short rows.

Ravelry warned that the raglan decreases were tricky.  I didn't have any problems with the raglan decreases.  I think the instructions for marking the decrease stitch were muddy, but I don't know, you've done one set of raglan decreases you've done them all right?

Nope, the raglan decreases weren't an issue.  The short row  neck line was.

How do you knit short rows while simultaneously knitting cables?   Cabling that interferes with the short rows?   Cabling that must be crossed while you are picking up the short row wraps (which in the pattern weren't wraps at all but yarn overs)?

I muddled through the first set of short rows.  And while I didn't feel like I did a masterful job, it was good enough that I could live with it.  I began my second set of short rows and

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the pattern isn't matching up on both sides of the neck.

I don't know where or how or why it all went wrong, since the blasted short rows/cable crosses don't make any sense to me in the first place.  I just know that this is something that my possible OCD will not allow to remain.  I can not live with this.

Not having the heart to rip it all out last night, instead I cast on for a pair of socks.

Something that isn't even on my list of the eleventy billion things I need to do before the baby comes.  *rolls eyes at self*  I haven't decided how I feel about them yet.  I love the pattern, but they are toe up and I generally loathe the fit of toe up socks.  I'm also not sure how I feel about that lone purple stripe on the top of the foot.  The  purple was striping beautifully, when without warning it decided to pool on the bottom of the foot.

I don't mind the pooling, I'm just not sure how I feel about the lone stripe on top.  In that decisive way I have, where I always make decisions promptly and never put off the ineveitable frogging, I'll probably throw the sock into The Abyss to linger until March or so when I frog it because I can't remember where I am in the pattern and I'll move on to something I HAVE to do, like maybe sew the baby's quilt.  Or fix the neck line on Meaty's sweater.

That is if I can get up from the couch today.  (*sob* My stomach feels hot)